Team D.S.C.O

We were slated to come to Mexico two weeks ago tomorrow, BUT both Dan and Oscar got a bit of the ‘vid so had to delay travel until Wednesday. Sam and Crystal came down as planned, and we all had a joyous reunion.

We are staying in the neighborhood of Coyoacan, made famous by folks like Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivero, and Leon Trotsky. It’s a lovely artist community, and in under a week we’ve become smitten with our environs.

Here are a few of ole Dan’s takeaways:

1. The parks here are simply amazing. They are sculpted, but not manicured and everything looks intentional in a utilitarian way.
2. This place seems to love art. There are stickers on the few street signs we’ve seen, graffiti on many of the blank walls we’ve come across, and most people seem to have some amount of ink on their bodies. We stumbled upon A COMIC SHOP in a subway station, and one whole station was devoted to Mexican cartoonists! Beyond that, the museum’s are beautiful and affordable.
3. It would be easy to spend a lot of money, but it’s also easy to not spend a lot of money. Today, for example, we took a walk up to El Mercado de Comida de Coyoacan and back. Along the way we got lunch, food for dinner, coffees, ice cream, some candy to go, fresh bread from the bakery for breakfast tomorrow, and in total we spent about $30 for the four of us.
4. Public transit is a highly valued and critical part of life here. It’s 5 Pesos to ride the train, which is about 25 cents. The bus is slightly more expensive, at 7 Pesos per ride. On the subway yesterday, TV screens were playing “Ace of Spades,” by Motorhead, which was delightful. They have cars which are only for women and children, there was very little trash around, nary a drop of urine to be smelled, and each many of the stations seem to have a theme to them, with artistic displays, much like a museum. It’s pretty rad.
5. This is a very clean city. I’m aware that we’re only seeing a fraction of the city – and the more tourist-y/well-to-do areas at that – but people clean everything, all the time. On the subway there’s very little trash — one or two pieces. I think about this city of 22m people and am just amazed at how everyone kind of picks up their area.

We’ve got just two more weeks here, and I for one am thrilled. We’ve got some exciting stuff on the docket, including pyramids, Lucha Libre, and Mexican Costco!

p.s. – One of the only really terrible aspects of our gap year was loaning out our cats to a foster family. Incredibly, the compound we’re staying at has two cats who look just like ours, and who weirdly, match our dear Luna & Squeakers personalities.